Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Alizade, S.Aliyev / On 6 March the Parliament of Azerbaijan approved the agreement signed between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Russian RussNeft on the joint development of the Azerbaijani onshore block of fields "Hovsani" and "Zikh".
The Operating Company will be called RussNeft Apsheron Investments Limited. The Russian company signed a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with SOCAR in November 2006. SOCAR will receive 25% share and RussNeft 75%. According to the agreement, the Company should increase its volume of oil production in "Hovsani" and "Zikh" by one-and-a-half times after two years.
The contract square of "Zikh" makes up 65 km2 and minable reserves of oil 12 mln tons. The field was opened in 1935. There are 234 wells in the field. At present oil is produced from 10 wells in the field which equals 25 tons per day and 20.000 cu.m. of gas.
The field "Hovsani" was opened in 1948. At present the oil production makes up 260 tons per day and 90.000 cu.m. of gas